Chapter 3 - GFP in the Cross-Cultural Context

Abstract

Chapter 3 discusses the cultural stability or universality of the general factor of personality (GFP). A comprehensive hierarchical structural model proposed in the Five Factor domain of personality (Musek, 2007) comprises different levels of generality with a GFP at the apex. While the cross-cultural aspects of the Big Five have been investigated in a number of studies, the question of intercultural stability of higher-order factors of personality remained unresolved. The present study analyzes therefore the higher-order structure of personality derived from culturally different sources of data. The results reflect a rather stable dimensional structure of personality and confirm the existence of the stable higher-order factors of personality. The higher-order personality factors show consistent patterns of saturation with the personality dimensions on the subsequent levels of generality. Transcultural stability of personality structure represents thus an important contribution to the psychological meaning of the GFP and reinforces the hypothesis of its biological basis.